Monday, January 5, 2015

FIRES UP, DESTRUCTION DOWN IN LINCOLN, NE



FIRES UP, DESTRUCTION DOWN IN LINCOLN, NE





December 24, 2014



More fires damaged more buildings this year than last, but they did significantly less damage.



Lincoln, Nebraska firefighters tackled nearly 2,000 fires in the first 11 months of this year and are on track to go out to 2,150, an 8.2 percent jump over a year ago, Lincoln Fire and Rescue Chief John Huff said.



The fires this year caused $4 million in damage to buildings and belongings, a 23 percent drop from the $5.3 million in destruction they did in 2013, according to LFR data.



“I’m glad to see loss is down,” Huff said.



It's hard to figure out why, in any given year, fires would go up while the damage they do would fall. LFR could be doing a better job, or the fire department -- and property owners -- might be getting lucky.



But, Huff added, he hopes it means his firefighters are getting to and putting out fires fast.



“If we make a good, aggressive attack, we get there quickly before the fire’s burned for any length of time,” he said. “We stop the fire before it spreads.”



Nationally, both the number of fires and the amount of damage they do fell recently and those numbers have been falling for decades, according to National Fire Protection Association statistics.



Their number dropped nearly 10 percent last year to an estimated 1.2 million, and the amount of damage fell 7.3 percent to $11.5 billion, according to the data. That’s part of a 35-year trend in which the number of fires in the United States plummeted by two-thirds.



But the number of deaths jumped 13.5 percent to 3,240 nationwide, while Lincoln saw its first death in two years back in June.



Brianna Johnson, 30, died June 15 after a cooking fire in her apartment at 26th and J.



Last year, no one died in a fire in Lincoln.



No matter what the dollar figure does, Huff said he’d like to see the number of deaths drop back to zero and stay there.



“Property’s property, but the most important thing is citizens’ lives,” the chief said.